Police State Lockdown In Toronto For G20 Summit

Here we go again, another suspension of civil liberties as the elite nations of the world gather in Toronto. Why do we put up with it, and if Canada, usually a bastion of human rights, allows it, who’s going to call a foul? Report from the Globe & Mail:

At City Hall, employees arrived at work to find a burly security guard demanding their access pass before they entered the normally unlocked doors. At a downtown law firm, lawyers were told to leave their suits and high heels at home and dress casual-like to avoid being set upon by anti-capitalist rioters. At one provincial government office, bureaucrats were told in late afternoon that the building was going under “lockdown” because protesters were in the neighbourhood. Many scooted for exits to avoid being trapped in the closed-up building.

All of a sudden on Monday, our calm, mild, pacific city took on a changed feel as the security noose tightened in advance of this weekend’s G20 summit. In the downtown, packs of police officers on bikes roamed the streets – followed, incongruously, by a golf cart-type vehicle transporting water, juice and granola bars for the boys and girls in blue. Around the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, the shiny metal security fence neared completion, a ghastly thing, like all such barriers, that made the notoriously ugly convention centre that will welcome foreign leaders even more unsightly than usual.

Also downtown, the first significant protest march made its noisy way through the streets, decrying the “police state” created for the summit. In the name of animal rights, native rights, poor people’s rights and numerous other causes, they occupied a gas station for a few minutes before cops on bikes made them leave.

Despite all the advance warning, this comes as a bit of a shock to the system for a generally safe city where the hand of authority is light and the cops keep a low profile. Go to Europe and you see soldiers walking around the airport with automatic rifles at the ready; go to the States and you see military men and women all the time. Not in Canada, not in Toronto…

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Same shit, different city in a different year. Here's hoping they don't overstep their boundaries (yeah, right) and gas the students just outside of their dormitories like they did here last year.

Bringing this nonsense and disorder into the public is ridiculous. There's no reason a new city each year has to be subjected to this kind of interruption. Scale your pow-wow down, assholes, and host it on a military base. Nobody wants to be sequestered in their home or be harassed outside of their office while trying to go about their everyday life.

Debbiew Hobson

careful jack these logs are monitored by harpers net police….if their is a knock on your front door go out the back….wish i could lol on this one but i might get charged with sedition…..good luck dude

Debbiew Hobson

careful jack these logs are monitored by harpers net police….if their is a knock on your front door go out the back….wish i could lol on this one but i might get charged with sedition…..good luck dude

5by5

Feh. Speak your mind. Stand up and be heard. Damn the consequences. Freedom isn't for the faint of heart.

5by5

There's already video up of police taking it well beyond anything that could be considered necessary.

In essence, they've decided to criminalize and make it worthy of a beat-down, simply to PEACEABLY assemble, as is SUPPOSED to be the right of all citizens in a democracy.

5by5

Typically, so-called “black bloc” groups that initially begin the violence actually work FOR the police, and are there precisely to give the remaining police forces the excuse to act violently against ALL those engaging in their right to assemble, irrespective of whether they are peacefully doing so or not.

That agent provocateur tactic has been used so often, you can pretty much bank on it now.

GoodDoktorBad

More cage rattling. Why hold this in a public area if they don't want security issues? Why dress the riot cops in Darth Vader outfits and sic' um on people? For that matter, why bailout Wall Street, GM, insolvent banks etc. I can't help but come to the conclusion that certain people are TRYING to incite a civil insurrection and then possibly using it as an excuse for martial law etc. I know how this sounds but its hard not to at least consider the implications of certain events and attitudes.See you all at the FEMA camp? (joke)

Guest

don’t even pay attention to these politicians and their gatherings. We are in the information age they can be connected 24/7 like we are with the internets. They feed on the attention they get from this and on the pain of others (Sadism). Just don’t pay attention, go on about you everyday life and be kind to the ones that are actually in your vicinity, that is the only way to change things. These politicians represent a dark side of our individual consciousness. Its all a facade and nothing really matters unless you want it to matter. The way I see it is if the Universe wants me gone, then I don’t want to be here. And what’s messed up is that quantum physics and other doctrines say that the observer creates everything soooo…… I think we just like the drama right now. Just pay attention to something worthy of your brilliant minds. Not these fools in suits wanting a good laugh at your expense. Instead of protest go gather some where far away from them and have some fun. Life is short and there are not guarantees. Loving the ones close to you is the only thing you can do and that creates a chain reaction. God does not play with dice, everything is for a reason but to us its all a gamble, all you can do is hope for good luck and if it does not happen wait for the wheel to move in your favor again. peace fellow humans peace.

vicwiz

don't even pay attention to these politicians and their gatherings. We are in the information age they can be connected 24/7 like we are with the internets. They feed on the attention they get from this and on the pain of others (Sadism). Just don't pay attention, go on about you everyday life and be kind to the ones that are actually in your vicinity, that is the only way to change things. These politicians represent a dark side of our individual consciousness. Its all a facade and nothing really matters unless you want it to matter. The way I see it is if the Universe wants me gone, then I don't want to be here. And what's messed up is that quantum physics and other doctrines say that the observer creates everything soooo…… I think we just like the drama right now. Just pay attention to something worthy of your brilliant minds. Not these fools in suits wanting a good laugh at your expense. Instead of protest go gather some where far away from them and have some fun. Life is short and there are not guarantees. Loving the ones close to you is the only thing you can do and that creates a chain reaction. God does not play with dice, everything is for a reason but to us its all a gamble, all you can do is hope for good luck and if it does not happen wait for the wheel to move in your favor again. peace fellow humans peace.